Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):
Genesis 15.1-12,17-18 | Psalm 27 | Philippians 3.17-4.1 | Luke 13.1-9 or Luke 9.28

Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of you, let my first impulse be to worship you, let my first speech be your name, let my first action be to kneel before you in prayer.

For your perfect wisdom and perfect goodness:
For the love wherewith you love humankind:
For the love wherewith you love me:
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life:
For the indwelling of your Spirit in my heart:
For the sevenfold gifts of your Spirit:
I praise and worship you, O Lord.

Yet let me not, when this prayer is said, think my worship ended and spend the day in forgetfulness of you. Rather from these moments of quietness let light go forth, and joy, and power, that will remain with me through all the hours of the day;
keeping me chaste in thought:
keeping me temperate and truthful in speech:
keeping me faithful and diligent in my work:
keeping me humble in my estimation of myself:
keeping me honourable and generous in my dealings with others:
keeping me loyal to every hallowed memory of the past:
keeping me mindful of my eternal destiny as your child.

O God, who has been the refuge of my forbears through many generations, be my refuge today in every time and circumstance of need. Be my guide through all that is dark and doubtful. Be my guard against all that threatens my spirit's welfare. Be my strength in time of testing. Gladden my heart with your peace; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

—John Baillie. A Diary of Private Prayer (Oxford, 1936)

"Jamie Penman" sung by Robin Laing from the Lanarkshire Songwriters/New Makars Trust, from the album The Grassmarket Butchers: Tales of the Covenanters..

The Covenanters were Scots who signed the National Covenant in 1638, in opposition to interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian church. The Stuart believed in a God-given right of the monarch to spiritual head of the church. Some Scots said that no man, only Christ, could be spiritual head of a church.

The song tells of Covenanters taken prisoner after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge on 22 June 1679, after a short-lived rebellion. The prisoners were sent on the ship Crown of London to be plantation slaves in Jamaica. The ship foundered in a storm off the coast of Orkney; two hundred covenanter drowned in the locked hold. Only when William of Orange became King in 1688 did the kirk regain its religious freedom. Yes, it's a Lenten story.